(1) IT’S A WRAP. Tom Cruise will star in Universal’s reboot of The Mummy, now scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 9, 2017. This version will be set in the contemporary world. Cruise is not playing the title role, trade outlets are referring to his character as a former Navy SEAL.
So who is The Mummy?
Sofia Boutella, best recognized as the badass beauty with swords for legs in Kingsman: The Secret Service, will be playing this new version of the Mummy.
Who’s directing it?
Alex Kurtzman will be calling the shots. The only feature film he’s directed to date is People Like Us, but he’s best known for being a writer on a ton of big blockbuster movies, like Transformers, The Island, Mission: Impossible III, and J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek series. It currently has a script from Jon Spaihts (Prometheus).
(2) TRACING FIREBALLS TO THEIR SOURCE. In “A Precursor to the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement” Jon Peterson of Playing at the World identifies Leonard Patt as a forgotten influence or source on Gary Gygax, whose Chainmail (a collaboration with Jeff Perren) was the first game designed by Gygax sold as a professional product. It included a heavily Tolkien-influenced “Fantasy Supplement”, which made Chainmail the first commercially available set of rules for fantasy wargaming.
Patt, should he still be with us, would surely be unaware of how Chainmail followed his work, let alone the profound influence that concepts like “fire ball” and saving versus spells have had on numberless games over the decades that followed.
…In the early, pre-commercial days of miniature wargaming, the environment was very loose and collaborative, and these kinds of borrowings were not uncommon – but attribution was still an assumed courtesy. Gary Gygax has something of a reputation for adapting and expanding on the work of the gaming community without always attributing his original sources. The case of the Thief class is probably the most famous: the first draft of Gary’s rules do note their debt to the Aero Hobbies crowd, but as the published version of the rules in Greyhawk (1975) did not, the obligation of the Thief rules to Gary Switzer and the others at Aero Hobbies long went unacknowledged. Regarding Chainmail, Gary in late interviews says nothing to suggest that concepts like fireball were not of his own invention; Patt’s rules compel us to reevaluate those claims. Nonetheless, we must acknowledge that Gary had a singular gift for streamlining, augmenting and popularizing rules originally devised by others: certainly we wouldn’t say that Patt’s original rules could have inspired Blackmoor, and thus Dungeons & Dragons, without Gary’s magic touch and the elaboration we find in the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement.
But if you ever vanquished an enemy with a fireball in Dungeons & Dragons, or Magic: the Gathering, or Dragon Age, and especially if you ever made a saving throw against a fireball, thank Leonard Patt!
(3) LIGHTNING STRIKING AGAIN AND AGAIN. The Kickstarter appeal for People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction has raised $20,192 as of this writing – 400% of its original goal. Another special issue of Lightspeed, it will be guest-edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslim, in partnership with section editors Nisi Shawl, Berit Ellingsen, Grace Dillon, and Sunil Patel, who are assembling a lineup of fiction, essays, and nonfiction from people of color.
Lightspeed’s Destroy series was started because of assertions that women, LGBTQ, and POC creators were destroying science fiction. The staff of Lightspeed took that as a challenge. Building on the astounding success of Lightspeed’s Women Destroy Science Fiction! (and Horror, and Fantasy) and Queers Destroy Science Fiction! (and Horror, and Fantasy), POC Destroy Science Fiction! brings attention to the rich history and future of POC-created science fiction and fantasy.
Like the previous Destroy issues, this campaign has the potential to unlock additional special issues focusing on Horror and Fantasy as well.
(4) DOUBTFUL. Breitbart.com’s Allum Bokhari dishonestly represents a commenter’s statement as a File 770 news item in “SJWs Are Purging Politically Incorrect Sci-Fi Authors From Bookstores”.
(5) BAKKA PHOENIX REPLIES. Yet he is getting the clicks he wants. One Toronto bookstore owner was intimidated into making a public denial — “A Question Worth Answering”.
We are Bakka Phoenix, a different bookstore entirely. We’re not going to comment on a rumour about XXX’s activities: that way lies madness and a lot of silly Twitter feuds. You might want to contact them directly (their website is XXX). Also, please note: from a Canadian perspective, Breitbart looks more like an outlet for the borderline-lunatic fringe than a credible news source.
But if you were wondering, we can assure you that we ourselves carry many books we find personally or politically reprehensible. Let’s face it, your left wing is somewhere off to our right, enough so that we’d have trouble even agreeing on the definition of ‘conservative’. Frankly, we find a lot of US political posturing completely unhinged.
But… so what? We’re in the business of selling books. Good books. Bad books. Titles some people love; titles others hate enough to throw across the room. Some books will transform readers minds and lives and be remembered for decades. Others will be forgotten immediately upon reading (or even partway through). We don’t have to like a book, its author, or its message in order to sell it. To suggest otherwise merely proves that the suggester spends very little time in actual bookstores.
The many wonderful independent booksellers I’ve met feel the same way. Independent bookstores exist for precisely that reason: to ensure that readers have the widest choice possible. So we — all of us — stock books we think our readers might be interested in, personal taste bedamned.
(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
- Born January 22, 1934 – Bill Bixby, of My Favorite Martian and The Hulk.
- Born January 22, 1959 – Linda Blair, of The Exorcist.
(7) BUTTER WOULDN’T MELT. Kate Paulk wrote a post educating her readers about the Best Editor Hugo categories.
Both these categories have seen controversy since their introduction: first the lobbying to split Best Editor – the whispers say this was so that a specific individual could receive an award instead of always playing second fiddle to a very prominent (and very skilled) magazine editor, the apparent hand-off of both through much of their history between an extremely small number of people – so much so that it appears a group of Tor editors considered the Long Form award to be their property (just look at the list of winners…).
The first comment, by Draven:
“yeah well, you know who we say for long form…”
The second comment, by Dorothy Grant:
“Hmmm, Maybe, maybe not. This year will be the last year David Hartwell will be eligible. (He edited L.E. Modesitt & John C. Wright, among others.) The industry lost a good man, and a good editor, yesterday. Granted, he’s won three, but these things do happen in tribute.”
The third comment, by Kate Paulk:
“They do indeed, and David Hartwell is certainly a worthy nominee.”
(8) BRUSHBACK PITCH. Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher in the National League, also has a less well known claim to fame – his great-uncle Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. That explains his loyalty to the diminutive world, and his recent contradiction of NASA on Twitter.
Did you read about a new planet in our solar system? Is #planet9 real? Our head of Planetary Science discusses.https://t.co/t0b1Atqpqg
— NASA (@NASA) January 20, 2016
U mean 10th right? #neverforgetpluto
— Clayton Kershaw (@ClaytonKersh22) January 21, 2016
(9) SINBAD. The Alex Film Society will screen The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) on Thursday, April 28 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale.
(10) A SCI-FI KID REMEMBERS. Film fan Steve Vertlieb has compiled his memories about meeting genre stars into one extravaganza post:
After some forty seven years of writing about films, film makers, and film music, I thought that I’d take a moment to remember the glorious moments, events, and artists who have so generously illustrated the pages of my life, and career, over these many remarkable years. Do return with me now to Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear when artistry and grandeur populated the days of our lives…days when gallant souls courageously rescued their leading ladies from screen villainy…days when culture and dignity proliferated the screen, television, radio, and the printed page. Look for it only in books, for its sweet reflection of gentle innocence is but a faded memory…a tender, poignant whisper of grace and wonder that, sadly, has Gone With The Wind.
Those memories are also the driving force of his autobiographical documentary Steve Vertlieb: The Man Who “Saved” The Movies. The director keeps an online journal of their progress.
A FILM DIRECTOR’S JOURNAL #3…THE PHILADELPHIA “SHOOT”
Whew! It would be a bitch of an exhausting marathon, because we had lots of LITERAL ground to cover in Center City, hopscotching from one locale to another blocks away; then to another, then to another; finally finishing up on the “high steel”, the center of the city’s Benjamin Franklin Bridge, stretching from Philadelphia across the Delaware River into Camden, N.J. But everyone agreed. And our “Philadelphia Marathon” was off and running.
The documentary film will wrap in February, 2016, with film festival screenings planned for this Spring.
(11) ALAN RICKMAN. Today Star Talk Radio site revisited Neil deGrasse Tyson’s 2012 conversation with Alan Rickman.
So what does astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson ask him about? Failing physics in high school, of course. They also talk a little about acting, including how Alan chooses and prepares for his roles, from researching the heart surgeon in Something the Lord Made to the wine-tasting scene in Bottle Shock. You’ll hear Alan explain his sense of responsibility to his audience and what he describes as “the mysterious mechanism of acting and theatre and storytelling.” Neil and Alan also get philosophical about the limits of human perception, the flocking behavior of birds, and the interaction of sound and memory.
(12) MARTIAN HOP. Tintinaus has a great addition to The Martian musical, based on Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.”
Every Martian knows that the secret to survival,
Is solving the next problem,
And then the problem after that.
‘Cause every day’s a winner
Even if you’re gettin’ thinner,
And the best that you can hope for
Is growing tates in your crewmate’s scat.
You gotta know when to sow ’em
Know when to hoe ’em
Know when to harvest
For a bumper yield
You never count sauce satchels
‘Cause that would be depressing.
Knowing how long ungarnished taters
Will be your only meal.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, and Martin Morse Wooster for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kyra.]
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Thirst.
I’m not comfortable with the idea of the use of the awards as a valediction on somebody’s life. I think there is a similar issue with nominating Terry Pratchett’s final book. Very understandable though.
Instead of responding to the Breitbart article, I’ll just go back to the awe-inspiring contributions to the 1/21/16 Babylon Hive Pixel Scroll . There are places online where one should read the comments.
Bill Bixby =The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.
I have one thing to say to Clayton Kershaw
Let it go, let it go,
Pluto aint a planet any more.
Let it go, let it go,
Turns out it is way to small.
Does anyone have any idea what David Hartwell edited last year? While I agree that a Hugo shouldn’t be a valediction, if he helped produce anything halfway decent, I would guess he would gain more than a few votes in memorium.
Bill Bixby also starred in The Magician, a short-lived but fondly remembered (by me) series about a crime-fighting stage magician.
Tor makes it relatively easy to find out who edited any given book. They give every editor the option of being listed in the credits for every novel they work on, or none of them–thus ensuring that editors can’t choose to be credited only on the books they’re proud of. Some Tor editors do choose the option of “none” because of objections to the category.
I love Center City Philadelphia so much. I would’ve never given you a wet fart for the chance to spend time in Philly before I started going there regularly. It turns out to be the best-kept secret on the East Coast.
Tintinaus: Does anyone have any idea what David Hartwell edited last year? While I agree that a Hugo shouldn’t be a valediction, if he helped produce anything halfway decent, I would guess he would gain more than a few votes in memorium.
There isn’t really anything listed on his ISFDB credits, and nothing attributed on Tor.com.
I’m guessing Patrick Nielsen Hayden would be a good person to ask regarding this.
(1) I might possibly be less interested in this movie, but I’m not sure how.
(4) and (6) More counterfactual views, I see.
Double fifth
@Lis, I loved “The Magician” too! I saw it again maybe 20 years later and the Suck Fairy had not attacked it.
A Google Books search turns up 2015 editing credits for him in
THE BEST OF GREGORY BENFORD
and
CORSAIR, James L. Cambias
So that would indicate he’d taken the “credit in all” option.
For whatever it’s worth, he is not listed as editor in ARCHITECT OF AEONS or, as far as I can tell, any other recent John C. Wright book. Using the Look Inside function at Amazon indicates his last editing credit in a Wright book appeared to be in TITANS OF CHAOS in 2007. But I could have missed something, and don’t know what it means anyway.
(3) LIGHTNING STRIKING AGAIN AND AGAIN. – Yes! Am hoping it makes ot to the Fantasy level at least
(7) BUTTER WOULDN’T MELT. – And in all that, no word as to what any one has actually edited in 2015. Mind you, I have almost no idea, except where author’s chose to state such in their acknowledgements bit, and that, more than anything else, is why I likely won’t nominate anyone for BE (Long). (Unless I find out who edited Shepherd’s Crown)
(2) TRACING FIREBALLS TO THEIR SOURCE
Actually Leonard Patt is still alive contrary to the article’s supposition according to the comments at Playing at the World. Its a great chance to get some first hand knowledge about that time of the early RPG hobby.
[ticky]
Re: planet. Yeah, even if you insist on a definition that includes Pluto, this new one still wouldn’t be the 10th, because there’s several others that are just as close to being planets as Pluto is. If the new one isn’t the ninth, then it’s 14th at best, and possibly much lower.
Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris are definite. Quaoar, Sedna, Orcus, and a couple that don’t have names yet are probable, and there are maybe a dozen more that are considered “likely” to be (dwarf) planets.
What I’m reading: I just found an old Cherryh in the back of a box I’d forgotten about. I have apparently owned this book for years, and I’m pretty sure I’ve read it, but I don’t remember a single thing about it, so I’m re-reading. It’s pretty decent so far. Light-weight, but fun. It’s called Hestia. I think it’s a standalone, as opposed to being set in any of her ‘verses, but I haven’t checked to see for sure. It’s published by DAW, and has a fairly cheesy cheesecake cover that (so far) makes no sense to me whatsoever. Bikini-clad cat-girl standing in a pool of water with a flower in her hand.
Xtifr: I just found an old Cherryh in the back of a box I’d forgotten about. I have apparently owned this book for years, and I’m pretty sure I’ve read it, but I don’t remember a single thing about it, so I’m re-reading. It’s pretty decent so far. Light-weight, but fun. It’s called Hestia… a fairly cheesy cheesecake cover that (so far) makes no sense to me whatsoever
Oh, dear gods, that book has had its share of “exceptional” covers*. The Italian version is especially charming.
* surprisingly, none of them published by Baen
So that planet is… second ninth?
@Nigel:
Maybe even double-ninth!
(2) TRACING FIREBALLS TO THEIR SOURCE
Peterson does great work on early rpg history, and this is a fascinating find.
(5) BAKKA PHOENIX REPLIES
Breitbart’s ability to fashion a something out of nothing is spectacular, but kudos to Bakka Phoenix for playing this one back with a straight bat.
(7) BUTTER WOULDN’T MELT
Will Paulk ever show the courage of her convictions and start naming who she’s accusing?
(Or, you know, stop semi-anonymously accusing people of stuff. Either would be fine)
Third ninth – Ceres was the first ninth planet (in order of discovery), subsequently recognised as the largest asteroid; Pluto was the second ninth planet, subsequently recognised as the brightest kuiperoid.
Oh, in case anyone’s interested: I shall briefly become king on Monday evening. “Briefly” meaning that the title is mine for the span of three minutes – between 7:12pm and 7:15pm Official File 770 Time – and I’ve already set up my three decrees.
The short version of the story is that for this year’s holiday thing, Cards Against Humanity bought a castle in Ireland (near Cork) and is making all the people who participated in the “Eight Sensible Gifts of Hanukkah” promotion three-minute monarchs.
For those less familiar with CAH’s holiday stunts, the deal is that you sign up and send ’em $15 in exchange for a succession of entertaining knickknacks, not knowing what you’ll get until it shows up. This was Night Eight; by comparison, the first three nights were nearly-identical pairs of socks. One of the other nights, which I thought was very cool, was the revelation that they’d found a way to give the workers at the Chinese factory that makes their cards a week’s vacation. The factory had no procedure for this, so CAH bought the plant’s total production capacity for the week and told them to produce nothing. That envelope contained several photos and notes from different workers.
Stewart – Ceres was discovered in 1801, before Neptune in 1846, so it was eighth not ninth. The “real” first ninth planet was Pallas, discovered in 1802.
@Rev Bob – Setting up a rotating monarchy in the Rebel County? You’ll be having to quash a new uprising every half minute at the least.
@Stewart/Nicholas – This shoddily edited solar system won’t be up for an award any time soon.
Nigel: This shoddily edited solar system won’t be up for an award any time soon.
It was a team effort, anyway — so if it had been well-edited, we wouldn’t know to whom to give the award.
@Nigel:
I intend to leave that particular headache to my successors. If anybody asks, I’ll just say I was stuck in traffic. 😉
Probably just as well. Good luck trying to fit it into the voter’s packet.
Ah, Rev Bob, you can’t call yourself a real king if you haven’t brutally suppressed a bunch of mad Corkonian croppies trying to skewer you with their pikes.
Hmmm.
While I did love Corsair (bought it because of the boycott), I still don’t nominate or vote on Best Editor categories.
I see Editors like Left Tackles in the NFL – You only notice them when they’re horrible.
Wow. Er.
Actually the Don Maitz one is rather nice.
Re: Boutella and the Mummy. I thought she did well in Kingsman. Now if the movie could do something interesting with her as the antagonist, the movie might be watchable. Might.
The poetry yesterday from everyone was fun and awesome.
How about “Solar System Destroys Science Fiction”
Brietbart. the article was bad enough. But the comments? it’s like walking into the “memory unit” at a John Birch Society retirement home….
Science Fiction Destroys The Solar System.
Just finished reading City of Blades last night. Since it’s not out in the US for a couple more days, I will content myself with saying: if you get it, when you can get it, you won’t regret it. (Probably. Unless you have a low tolerance for gore and things, in which case… well, it does get a bit graphic in places, even by my standards, and I am not often bothered by gore.)
If I could scroll that way, I wouldn’t need the pixel powder.
“She was a one-line, one-take scrolling purple pixellator
One-time, no-fake scrolling purple pixellator…”
(8) Perhaps a good name for the “ninth planet” would be “Decimus” (or whatever the form is it should take. Decima?).
@Rev. Bob
Listen, strange fans, sittin’ in basements, distributin’ cards, is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some random pasteboard flumadiddle!
Will Paulk ever show the courage of her convictions and start naming who she’s accusing?
Or start citing any source other than “whispers” or “rumors” or “some people say”.
SF in the 1970s and 1980s was full of covers that if displayed on a desk at work would probably now be considered to constitute a hostile work environment. And DAW had its share.
I hope to review more in the Diadem series but I may call those two books Aleytys’ Quest for Trousers 1 and 2.
A careful perusal of classic DAW covers leads me to suspect Wollheim had a reputation among artists for liking a well-formed bottom.
Puppies like to diddle the Hugos. Slating actually good works and people is their logical next step, since much of the opposition last time was prompted by the poor quality of conservative science fiction as displayed in their nepotism-motivated choices. A much-beloved editor died recently and can no longer defend his good name. We can all see this coming.
However if Paulk is right about the requirements for long form editor, Hartwell would have had to edit at least four novel-length books that are not anthologies in 2015, and according to Kurt Busiek (above) he seems to have edited 2 books, one of which (Best of Gregory Benford) sounds likely to be an anthology. At first glance Hartwell doesn’t seem to be eligible for Long Form. The anthology probably makes him eligible for short form provided he has edited three other anthologies at some point in the past, which seems fairly likely.
Also since you shouldn’t trust Puppy claims without checking I went and looked at the winners of Best Editor Long Form real quick. The “a group of Tor editors considered the Long Form Award to be their personal property” made me wonder. Here are the winners of Best Editor Long Form / Best Professional Editor back to 2000, not counting the Year The Puppies Did The Choosing For Everyone:
2014 Ginjer Buchanan (Ace)
2013 PNH (Tor)
2012 Betsey Wolheim (DAW)
2011 Lou Anders (Pyr)
2010 PNH (Tor)
2009 David G. Hartwell* (Tor)
2008 David G. Hartwell* (Tor)
2007 PNH (Tor)
——-(Best Professional Editor)——
2006 David G. Hartwell* (NYRSF, Tor)
2005 Ellen Datlow (Science Fiction, others)
2004 Gardner Dozois (Asimov’s)
2003 Gardner Dozois (Asimov’s)
2002 Ellen Datlow (Science Fiction, others)
2001 Gardner Dozois (Asimov’s)
*yes, that David G. Hartwell–the one Kate Paulk is lauding as “a worthy choice.”
1) The largest number of BELF (Best Editor Long Form) awards any editor has is 3 of 8 (PNH.)
2) The largest number of BELF awards awards any publisher has is 5 (Tor) of which 3 are PNH and 2 are … David G. Hartwell–a worthy choice whom Kate Paulk is apparently accusing of considering the Long Form Award to be his and PNH’s “personal property” in that very post.
3) The magazine editor Kate is coyly refusing to name appears to be Gardner Dozois, though his domination of the Best Professional Editor category appeared to have been slipping somewhat in the run-up to the split into long and short form.
A question: Does anyone have any source for figures on what percent of the SFF books published in those years were published by Tor? I had the impression Tor put out a *lot* of the books in the field but I have no source for this.
Is this ever checked, much less enforced though? Last year Toni Weisskopf and Jim Minz were nominated, but to date I don’t think it’s ever been detailed what they edited, much less if it was four items in the previous year.
I don’t think this is a category where there’s disqualifications taking place.
I read a lot of DAW books at one point, in spite of the covers. They excited a certain amount of comment at my various jobs, most of it unprofessional. It seemed like Tanith Lee got the worst of it, but maybe not.
BUTTER WOULDN’T MELT – I’m sure in her own mind, Kate Paulk is a wonderful person, unflinchingly honest and terrifyingly bright. Props to her for actually linking the official rules for Best Editor, even if nobody draws the logical conclusion and gets to the place where at least some people couldn’t vote for Toni Weisskopf because the rules for Best Editor Long Form require something other than team effort, yay team.
Does anyone know why there is a four book per year burden for Long Form but only four anthologies lifetime and one per year for Short Form?
In other news, since I finished Ancillary Mercy I have been flailing about trying to find something about which I’m more than lukewarm. I’m pretty sure this happened after the other two books, but I wasn’t trying to get through Hugo reading and had time to let the effects of brilliance subside naturally.
I have taken the liberty to expand the title a little:
Raindrops On Scrollses And Pixels On Kittens
Bright polished rockets and God Stalker tickys
Brown paper packages filled up with books
These are a few of my favourite things
Cream colored tea sets and a whimsical Presger
Space ships and AIs and hyperspace travel
Witches that fly with the moon on their brooms
These are a few of my favourite things
Wolves and White Walkers with blue shiny eyeballs
Arya and Sansa, they must stay alive.
Silver haired Dany, grows into a queen
These are a few of my favourite things
When the pup barks, when the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don’t feel so bad
And more tangential, this rendition is one of my favourite things:
@Cheryl S.
One thousand eggs, all nice and warm,
Crack crack crack,
a little chick is born
peep-peep peep-peep peep-peep peep-peep.
@Iphinome
Nine hundred and ninety-nine eggs, all nice and warm…
And thankyouverymuch for the morning laugh and sigh.
The best-editor categories require a lifetime total of at least four works but they only require a single work during the year of eligibility. (See sections 3.3.9 and 3.3.10 of the WSFS Constitution.)
The Best Semiprozine and Best Fanzine categories work the same way; they require a total of at least four publications lifetime, and at least one in the year of eligibility.
@Cheryl S. and @Iphinome: So this happened.
https://twitter.com/UOJim/status/673202572933615619
Greg: There’s a difference in wording between 3.3.9 and 3.3.10.
The long form requires all four works to be from the previous year. The phrase “at least one of which” is only present in section 3.3.9 and not 3.3.10.
Just finished Leviathan Wakes after fairly steaming through it. Fighting the temptation to buy the next one as I’ve still got a enough to read already. Watching The Expanse at the same time was interesting, I like what they are doing with the series.
Just started Days of Atonement by Walter Jon Williams.